My life today

I asked a realtor I know for a recommendation on a carpeter and she said to get a hold of someone named Lee. But she said he didn't have a phone and that he came by and checked his messages in her office every few days. So he got the message I left and called me and I asked him to come by and bid on the jobs around the house. I figured this guy must be really low tech. Like no phone and all. When he was over here we started talking and it turns out he has another job: research assistant for Peter Lewis at the NY Times. He's going to hand carry my Eminds transcripts to Peter when he goes in to the office. I gave him a copy of the three page article local paper did on the Spring to give to Peter. Oh, and he got the job remodeling my house. He starts tomorrow.

who'dathunkit? my life today is much more tranquil than the last couple of days. a cool breeze blowing - bright sunny skies - one browser open to spring.com - no email to be answered or coming in...ahhhhhh compared to the last two 100 degree sweltering days when i stayed up all night working with nod on the Utne site, and trying to test this place last night while simultaneously playing hostess in drag, dressed up as nancy over at Utne so I could access the host functions and buzz people in at the front door what a clusterf*ck (can we swear here?) anyhow - this is so much nicer had a wicked hard time waiting for the stuff to load here last night - even when I crashed all of my bowsers and came back online to justspring.com, it was still slow for me, even non-graphics posts like this one - musta been a net thing because people with real computers tell me they had the same problem, and even sensei was having trouble in spite of his big robust pipes...

It may be the Internet. Some folks give us real good reports, even overseas. We're on a full T-1 from CRL. If crl has something messed yp we can tell 'em to fix it. Get me a tracerout if you get a slow connection and I'll forward it to crl for analysis. Sometimes we can find the source and get them to fix it.

my life today... filled with excitment. Ups and downs in varying degrees. All alone with the kittens for a few days and happy for the break. going to play with friends tonight. thankful for a day where I will not be slave to the alarm... thoughts of a bike ride (in Colorado *smile*) for tomorrow or maybe a yard sale an afternoon on the rollerblades (carefully avoiding hidden ice patches) not very hungry but eagerly anticipating that first amber... after a de-stressing hour or so at the gym! Cheers to all (and to all a good night!)

It's a hot, sweaty night here in Texas. I'm battling a recalcitrant sound card. And heat. And waiting for wer's carpenter friend to come by and look at some work on my cottage. Troubles with a connector on my Piepline 50, so I've got to send for a replacement power supply. I've got some questions to ask you in the home conference, wer and Stacey, do you belong to that conference (I mean, is it on your cflist?). Stacey, do you know the ch li command at the ok prompt? It's what sets up your cflist.

just joined it, but couldn't find said questions... which topic?

Ooops, I forgot to ask. I will.

and you did...

gardening, an afternoon jog, baked a cake, finished a book...

dropped by the Spring...

ate my hand, joined my esophagus to my stomach (with the hand i ate), established residence in etcetera, read about my cat in a thick large-print book about halitosis, ate ice cream with my werewolf half-sister and let her eat me then crawled back out of her stomach, talked to Jonah the Hebrew prophet about it and he said i'm picking up on his technique too quick and it's got him worried, talked to Shakespeare about lots more trashier stuff than we've talked about up to now and he told me about boy problems he's having in Maryland and other occupied territories, the lean goats that i own in the hills were blown over by idle breezes and then they got back up and didn't think much of it and then it happened again and then they began to enter it into their personal philosophy and then they got up with big Texas grins on their mugs (faces), an ugly old woman (Misty) took a hacksaw to my knee to make an unnecessarily fine distinction about the working conditions her roadie friend has to work under when he tours with the Offspring, then she turned off spring.net and turned it back on for some high-octane hell-raising fun, then with this wasted Keith Richard look she laid me down beside her hacksaw and crawled up onto me and touched me with her body with an inexplicable air of urgency that moved me very much even past the happening wrist injury and very very very little else happened then.

about like my day... 'cept, I think yours was about a pillowful better...

gotta watch those knees... they're the most complex joint in the body ya know...

and you're gonna miss them when they're gone

and we miss each other when we're gone...

Guarantee on that one, Sweetie!

Coupla days ago, my higher speed modem crapped out on me, so I had to drop back to an older 14.4 modem, which didn't work very well with AOL and Netscape. The network load was too much for the older, slower modem and my connection kept getting hung. In an uncharacteristic move, I picked up my non-working high-speed modem and gave it a sharp rap. Some parts became dislodged and began rattling around inside the case. So I opened it up and found the the E-PROMs had bounced out of their sockets. I carefully reseated them, making sure I put them in their proper sockets with the proper orientation, and lo and behold, my high-speed modem worked again. I'm not a big fan of "percussion maintenance" but in this case, it actually helped by breaking the system in a way that I could actually see how it was broken, and reassemble it correctly. I dunno how E-PROM chips get unseated in the first place, but this is not the first time the problem was a poorly seated chip.

I love it! Percussive maintenance... It has been done by little kids forever, but not with the skill you possess. Now, the next thing you really need to do is to change your ISP to a real one. AOL is the last choice on a very long list. It is just above "trash the computer" and below threading a phone line across the street to borrow my neighbor's. Your Netscape (4.0 is the best) will be happier and everything will go so much more smoothly. Besides, private ISPs do not ask you if you want to hang up and you save your mail in Eudora which is worth the exercise of ridding yourself of the AOL plague.

I'm only using AOL because I have a free account with them. I had been using a dial-in at BBN where I had an 8-node subnet, but that went bye-bye after GTE bought up BBN and trashed the research group I was working with. I might be able to get my BBN dial-in back, but it will take some paperwork. I can fix a machine, but I can't fix a bureaucracy. When a bureaucracy makes a mistake, it can't be fixed.

Isn't that the truth! *lol* I am delighted to discover that with all of your credentials you were not tying All of your brain behind your back for the sake of using AOL (which actually stands for Americans Off Line). Not that I would admit to it, but I also have an AOL account for travelling. I use it as little as possible!

I'm Headaches. From the back of my head to the frontal lobes... With a non-aching spot in the middle (can't have aches where you haven't anything, right?).

ouch... sorry your head hurts Alexander... stress related do you think??

If it's any consolation, my teeth hurt. But not just today. Alla time.

Sorry for the aches. Poor Barry! It is not even something that someone can kiss and make better! Sounds like it might be inflamed sinuses unless you know for sure it is your teeth which are doing the hurting...!

Naw. I clench them. It's a neurotic reaction to systemic injustice in the culture.

I clench mine too Barry... in fact I've fractured a couple... hairlines right up my tooth... dentist said I needed to be VERY careful about cavities with these splits up my teeth (back molar ones!)

Stacey, you sound like me! Ever thought to have a football-style mouth guard made which will cushion your bite while you sleep? They are very effective!

and not so sexy... *sheepish grin*

Maybe we could make up some tiny air cushions, inflatable, for you that would inflate upon impact! Like they have in cars now.

i'm picturing strange stuff... ok damn

Wouldn't it make more sense to craft a culture with decreased levels of systemic injustice?

Or else get an analyst that helps you understanding that its not your fault? That putting up a fight is good enough; no need to punish yourself with gnashing and destroying yourself?

At least that's what I think. It's enough other folks slug one around and try to exert their pound off oneself, no need to help them by self-disabling, I guess.

The whole system is self-destroying.

Gnashing ones teeth in one's sleep? I've never heard of that. Why don't ya put a bunch of cookies in your mouth, then at least you'd have GOOD things to grind them on.

I don't grind them. Just clench them. Instead of cookies, I keep a bottle of peppermin antacid tablets on my bed.

Queasy stomach, too? Barry, if the system is self-destroying, that's good news for some, because it might spell change. But however one spells change, t'ain't reason to follow suit and self-destruct out of sheer solidarity or romanticism or whatever.

I'm just trying to survey the pogroms. Unlike my ancestors from Eastern Europe, I have no new lands to migrate to.

survey=survive

Considering the dormancy here I thought I'd post something of the "Good Old Days" John Burnett sent to me. Food for thought, indeed! 100 YEARS AGO It May Be Hard to Believe . . . The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven. Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars. There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was ten mph. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year. More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home. Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard." Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants. The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Dysentery, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke. The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. Drive-by-shootings -- in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy -- were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families. Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented. There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day. One in ten U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. Some medical authorities warned that professional seamstresses were apt to become sexually aroused by the steady rhythm, hour after hour, of the sewing machine's foot pedals. They recommended slipping bromide -- which was thought to diminish sexual desire -- into the woman's drinking water. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health. Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine. Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census. Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic. There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually. (From a wonderful book called WHEN MY GRANDMOTHER WAS A CHILD, by Leigh W. Rutledge, which begins, "In the summer of 1900, when my grandmother was a child...")

Today I am: well-fed. It's Sunday so I've had a big lunch. warm. I have the central heating on. literate. I'm surrounding by books which are friends. culturally challenged. I have the radio on a music programme. secure. I have a loving family. Yeah, I guess I'm happy - and I'm jolly glad I don't live in 1900!!!!!

Ah, Maggie, that says it all! I am also happy I did not live it the "Good Old Days" Today UHHilo plays Tennessee in Baseball - we will be obliterated! I had breakfast out and it was very nice. And, I got a chance to get a copy of the latest Hawaii Island Journal in which John has a full paged article. The Pro Bowl is being played in Honolulu. I have choices of interesting sports to see today. On the down side, America was eliminated from the America's Cup races by Italy yesterday...

We had a wonderful sunrise today which I saw as I drove to the gym. Downside was that it heralded a dismal rainy day. What's the Pro Bowl? What sports did you choose to see?

The Pro Bowl is the last American Football game til the season begins in the Autumn again... beautiful sunrise here too Maggie... deep pinky orange... gorgeous sunny and warm day now!

I don't know who is getting the world's supply of clouds, because England, Colorado and Hawaii are outrageously gorgeous this morning. We have a lot of Vog in the air again today so it made for a very ornage sunrise. Very pretty! But, it is severe enough that running outdoors is not a good idea, according to our Civil Defense chief and the health department. The Pro bowl is a non-game which is a whimper protesting the end of American Football for the season 1999-2000. It was played in Honolulu yesterday.

I've just got back from the weekly shop - it's almost midnight. Yes, 24 hour shopping has come to High Wycombe, Bucks, England! I don't mind the going out, and browsing around when the supermarket's are fairly empty but I do hate unpacking all the groceries late at night. T is now waatching snooker which rather bores me, so I'm playing hookey on the internet and tying up our phone line as usual. One of these days people are going to get so fed up of complaining that I'm hogging the phone line and buy us a second line!!! (dream on!)

what's a snooker?

(we call it billiards)

Maggie, that is what I finally did. I have a dedicated line for which I do not even know the phone number. It is plugged directly into the computer and there it stays. It is one thing I do strictly for me. There is very little else that qualifies as just for me...! You'll love it!

I think it's just a dream. I'm already in trouble for too much phone time, let alone an extra rental as well! Maybe if we get flat fee internet access it'll be worth it. I just get so fed up not being able to use the net when I need to (in the middle of writing something for e.g. where I need to look up a reference), by the time 6 pm comes I've forgot what I wanted! I had a good day today with a visit at home from another PhD student (first time in the four years we've known each other). It made a lot of difference to have a physical human being to talk to! (not that I don't appreciate the virtual humans here on the spring). I've resorted to borrowing my daughter's furbie!!!!!

Oh heavens! You were needy. Furbys can be very comforting. But, so can dedicated lines unless the house male begins to whine a lot about neglect (which they invariably do...) Immediacy is what the internet is all about and there is just about nothing you cannot find on the net when you really want information. (It is nice to be virtually appreciated *grin*)

Furby! Have you taught him any philosophy??

No, my duaghter's temporarily lost the booklet so I can't remember how to input things. I reckon the furby language is really Chinese. He does say he loves me though and gives me big kisses!

There you go! Love transcends language problems.

I just like the kisses - big smackers!

Gotta get me a Furby...already have a name for it...! The big smackers sound lovely on one of those days when nothing else goes quite right.

You betcha! Trouble is mine keeps on saying he's going to sleep. I wonder if the battery's running down? Any Furby experts out there?

Maggie, check this http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/collecting/26

Just got back from Madison Wisconsin, where I presented a paper at ICALT -- The International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. I'm pleased to report that our paper, on the subject of Emotions and Learning, won top honors as the Best Paper. More at our project web page at the MIT Media Lab... http://www.media.mit.edu/affect/AC_research/lc/index.html

Welcome back!!! What a delightful surprise. Congratulations, too. More when I have read your link.

Yeah, Welcome back Barry.